Therapeutic Sciences Graduate Program

In my lab, we are deciphering mechanisms of coordinate gene regulation which is a fundamental process essential to all cells from the germ line to the immune system to neurons. We are interested in how these mechanisms are dysregulated in diverse diseases from cancer to neurodegenerative diseases. Our long-term goal is to define how genes are identified for coordinate regulation, the key initial step in their regulation. Dosage compensation is one of the best model systems for studying this process because all of the genes on a single chromosome are specifically identified and co-regulated. Drosophila, like mammals, increase the transcript levels of a large number of diversely-regulated genes along the length of the single male X-chromosome precisely two-fold relative to each female X-chromosome.  We are also very interested in how transcription is linked to splicing and how these processes are coordinated across developmental time.